Naps May Be the Ticket for Sleepy Air Controllers

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Air traffic controllers have been suspended or fired recently for
sleeping on the job. Research points to a simpler solution:
naptime.

After a rash of reports of misbehavior by air traffic controllers
in recent weeks – including watching a movie on duty and allowing
first lady Michelle Obama's plane to get too close to a military
cargo plane – federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood
announced two firings. One of these was of a controller in
Tennessee who "made a bed in the control tower, brought a pillow,
brought blankets," LaHood said on the PBS program "Newshour" on
April 20. "He's been fired. We're not going to going to sit
by and let that kind of behavior take place in the control
towers."

LaHood and the Federal Aviation Administration should consider
endorsing it instead, according to some experts.

"I think this is a problem with the scheduling system, and should
be attacked that way first rather than as a disciplinary
problem," said Gregory Belenky, a professor at the Sleep and
Performance Research Center at Washington State University in
Spokane.

The nature of air traffic control requires someone to work
overnight and sleep at unnatural times, however, it possible to
mitigate the sleep deprivation that comes with this type of
schedule. Naps of 20 minutes or longer have the same
minute-by-minute restorative value as a good night's sleep,
Belenky said. "It appears it really is total sleep in 24 hours
that makes the difference." [ Emotions
Run Amok in Sleep-Deprived Brains ]

In recent weeks, controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National
Airport and Seattle’s Boeing Field/King County International
Airport have been punished for sleeping, and officials have made
some changes. Locations with only one controller on duty for the
midnight shift will get two, and the minimum time between shifts
has been increased to nine hours from eight.

But these changes don't address a fundamental problem, Belenky
contends: The schedule worked by some air traffic controllers is
at odds with human biology. [ 5 Things You Must
Know About Sleep ]

While controllers can work multiple schedules, the problematic
one is called a 2-2-1 counterclockwise rotation, which compresses
a five-shift workweek. On the first two days, the controller
works two evening shifts, followed by two morning shifts, and on
the fourth day, the controller ends the morning shift in the
early afternoon, then returns to work in the evening, after an
eight-hour break (now nine hours).

A schedule like this can create problems because it requires
controllers to be alert when their bodies want to sleep and to
sleep when they are alert. Nearly everyone has a natural, daily
cycle of activity and sleep, called
our circadian rhythm. When our body temperature is high, we
are productive and alert; and later, body temperature drops, as
does our performance, when it's time to sleep, according to
Belenky. "That’s physiology; it is not something that can be
overcome solely by self-discipline and good intentions," he said.

This compressed shift isn't unique to the United States. A study
of controllers in New Zealand on a similar schedule found they
slept less and less as they progressed through the week. And
during the afternoon of the fourth day, most controllers slept an
average of 2.2 hours before their night shift. A separate study
of New Zealand controllers found that a 40-minute nap taken
during the night shift reduced sleepiness.

"Although sleep taken at work is likely to be short and of poor
quality, it still results in an improvement in objective measures
of alertness and performance," wrote the New Zealand researchers,
led by Tracey Leigh Signal of the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at
Massey University.

Adding an hour of sleep to air traffic controllers on the final
day of their rotation, as officials have done, may help but is
not a solution, said professor Hans Van Dongen, Belenky's
colleague at the center in Spokane.

"Every schedule is not going to be completely fatigue-free, but
we can try to minimize the impact of it," he said. He cautions
that scheduled naps would need to take into account sleep inertia
– the grogginess you feel after waking up.

According to media reports, LaHood has emphasized the need for
"personal responsibility" by controllers and said they will not
be paid to take naps.

This latter statement strikes Von Dongen as misguided.

"I understand the logic, but at the same time, we pay for all
kinds of things that improve safety," he said.